The Mindset of Building a Business w/ Jackie Hermes

Jackie Hermes is the CEO of Accelity, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based agency that helps software-as-a-service (SaaS) startups get to revenue and grow faster.

Jackie talks about her own entrepreneurial journey, including her foray to the food industry and how she bootstrapped Accelity. Having been on the platform for years, Jackie shares tips on building your own personal brand on LinkedIn and how best to leverage it.

Jackie also talks about always working on yourself first before working for others, and how she approaches people, both as a CEO and as a parent.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Be open to constantly refine and redefine your values 
• How to get away with bootstrapping 
• Get in touch with your emotions and understand your reactions 
• Set realistic and workable goals and work hard 
• Tips for building your personal brand on LinkedIn
• Manage your personal finances well to make space for your side hustle 
• Parenting and teaching your kids how to spend money responsibly
• Always show up for yourself first
• High-performance habits for high-performing people
• Take good care of your team

QUOTES

Jackie: "It sucks. I mean, it's very hard. It's very, very difficult to grow a bootstrap company because you don't have any money, right? Like you have to sell and use that money to fund your growth. And then sometimes if you take a risk and it doesn't pan out, then you don't have any money to pay for it, or you can't pay payroll. And so you have to be really ready to make those hard decisions." 

Jackie: "You just get over it. You know, it's like the cycle of recovering from this stuff and it gets faster and faster. The more you learn and the better able you are able to deal with it." 

Jackie: "You have to test and you have to figure out what works for you and you have to be consistent. I think a lot of people will post their text post or whatever it is three days a week. They'll do it for a month and they're like this isn't working. This sucks. And I've been doing it for three years." 

Jackie: "You have to go out and you have to leave thoughtful comments on people's content. You have to connect with them. You have to support them. I would do a lot of that before you ever start posting anything, because it's just like when you're marketing from a company, when no one knows who you are yet, you haven't given them a reason to care." 

Jackie: "I think the number one thing that I've learned over time is that in order to show up for other people and be a good parent and a good coach, you have to show up for yourself first, and you have to like yourself first, and you have to believe in yourself first."

Jackie: "Feel your feelings all the way. You can't just push it out and pretend it's not happening. You have to get into the depths of everything that you're feeling and be sad for however long your sadness is there. And that's the only time that you can begin to recover."

You can learn more about Jackie in the links below.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejackiehermes/
• Website: http://accelitymarketing.com/
• Personal Site: JackieHermes.com
• The Art of Entrepreneurship Podcast